To the One I Love

This past weekend my wife and I celebrated our twelfth anniversary. It is astounding how fast time flies when it is spent with your best friend. As an anniversary gift my wife gave me my first meerschaum pipe. The pipe is a huge glorious CAO from the Bekler collection. Now in all honesty I must admit that I have no idea of how to care for or for that matter even smoke a meerschaum so it’s off to the web to give myself a quick crash course in proper meerschaum etiquette. My wife originally set out to find a churchwarden knowing that I have been wanting one for quite some time but when none were to be found, she decided upon a meerschaum. John, the owner of the pipe shop, suggested a nice conservative lattice work billiard but the wife’s thoughts on the matter were “If going for your first meerschaum you might as well go wild and find the most eccentric one available”. And that my friend is how I came into the proud possession of a large carved meerschaum pipe in the shape of a bearded head wearing a nightcap……. Hmm nightcap, that gives me an idea!